Derek Tait's Singapore Home Movie

My British blogger friend Derek Tait posted the following comment to my previous "Old Singapore Fifty Years Ago" blog:

derek tait said...

Hi James, thanks for a great blog. I've been doing my best to get people to transfer their home movies to DVD and to load them up to YouTube. It seems that a lot are starting to deteriorate and it would be a great pity if they were lost. I have some excellent ones stored on my computer but unfortunately, the owners don't want them put on the net. Our old movies are on Youtube though. My username on there is derektait2 if anyone wants to search for them. Hope all is well there. Best wishes, Derek. July 5, 2012 2:44 AM

Thank you, Derek. We share sentiments of our like-minded friends on preserving Singapore memory through home movies as "memory-aids" for nostalgia fans and friends to remember.  Watching the movies the first time as viewers on YouTube and those who filmed these movies over 50 years ago,  many places in Singapore have become unrecognizable and never the same. The physical landscape is now totally changed.

As Singaporeans staying here, we have best of both worlds in our memories...the past and the present.

Singapore, as with every cosmopolitan cities in the world, the country is built and developed for the future generations of our people and all the peoples of the world as tourists, visitors or as guests to stay here.

Come share our Singapore small town stories here .

Posted here the first of a series of Derek's home movie "Singapore December 1990" on this blog.

This bit of film shows Singapore in 1990. Sorry it's a bit jumpy and dark. It's worth watching to the end for the underwater shots of the swimming polar bear in Singapore Zoo. The building with the bamboo scaffold is the 7th Storey Hotel. We stayed there when we first got there as we were on a budget. It wasn't up to much, I believe it's recently been knocked down. There's also views of the Merlion, the Singapore River, sampans and street scenes. There is also a bit of the night market and the Christmas lights in Orchard Road. If I go again, I promise to take a better camera!

Derek and I have blogged about the 7th Storey Hotel  in Singapore from different perspectives at different time-frames as expressed in our respective blogs.

As we watch the home movies or reading the nostalgia blogs of old Singapore, please use the respective medium of "memory-aids" as catalyst for personal Singapore memory.

Everyone has a different story to tell about the same place, different time, different memories as the tapestry of Singapore, our home to dream, to work, play and build on our hopes for the future generations. Singapore memory, as like the history of our forefather over decades, cannot be erased or forgotten.

Like the remembrance of the old home movies of Singapore, we need to revive and restore our memories on a personal journey of discovery of Singapore together.